The great information pot hole

so I'm sitting in front of the library because I simply could not wait till tomorrow to post, so had to grab quick wifi access.
I just returned from my first, and quite possibly last, editors meeting at the paper I wrote a couple of articles for.
As people were going over their writing experiences, and ideas for insightful articles, the new editor is going around the room seemingly interested, and handing out assignments that he thinks people will be good for based on their experience. When he gets to me, and says "So you're a blogger, what type of writing would you like to do?"........... ummm.... what the hell do I know? LOL
To be perfectly honest I rarely know what I'm writing about untill I'm done writing it and hitting "save". He seemed appropriately unimpressed with this, as would I. However fact is, I never called myself a writer, nor did I ever approach the paper about writing, THEY CAME TO ME.
Anyway, I just wanted to throw that out there now, but it's not the point of this post. The point of this post is my growing frustration with lack of information being given to the people who need it! One of the key focus and "mantras" of this newspaper is "Homeless Empowerment"
Now listen, I don't want to criticize, because I think the paper does great work. However, as a source of INFORMATION, and HOMELESS EMPOWERMENT...... can someone explain to me how while I was the "odd man out" at this meeting, I wasn't out of the building before I was aproached by two seperate writers for this paper asking me for help in obtaining food stamps and health coverage???
I had told them about some of the stuff I've been doing at the shelter for these guys because I had done a phone interview with CNN about it.
So please...... I fully understand that everyone seems to be looking at the BIG picture in regards to homelessness, yet somehow nobody seems to have the sense to see if their own individuals have some of the basic information they need.
Am I the only person who seems to see that sometimes before you can "the people", you can actually start by helping "A PERSON"!!!

So, here's my tip for the paper.... give your own people some basic information to help empower themselves, and maybe they'll serve your empowerment movement that much better. Just a crazy thought, but hey, what do I know? I'm just a homeless "blogger"

But don't worry, they have my info, and I will be helping them obtain what they need.

John Doe.... Fighting homelessness one PERSON at a time ;)